The invention proceeds from a method and an arrangement for controlling the heater of an exhaust-gas probe in the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine. The mixture control of an internal combustion engine which is necessary with respect to optimal consumption, exhaust-gas minimization and catalytic converter protection is only possible when the exhaust-gas probe is adequately heated for technical and physical reasons as known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,922. For this reason, the mixture closed-loop control in the warm-up phase is usually replaced by a mixture open-loop control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,572 discloses an exhaust-gas probe heater with which the rapid operational readiness of the exhaust-gas probe is obtained after start as well as for maintaining operational readiness under all operating conditions. This exhaust-gas probe heater is controlled in dependence upon the load condition of the engine. An alternative to this heater is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,967 wherein an exhaust-gas probe heater control is described which operates in dependence upon the function signal of the exhaust-gas probe. A common disadvantage of the known solutions is that the exhaust-gas probe is not operationally ready when the engine is started.